Just out of curiosity, I was watching an old episode from the TV show, "Alias", and during one of the scenes, they showed "the bad guys" using BlackBerrys to PIN each other, thus avoiding their messages being intercepted by the CIA or NSA. I was wondering if this IS possible, and if so, I can't imagine the federal government not putting a backdoor in. As I said, I'm just curious. I know PIN messages are from BB to BB, but I can't imagine them NOT being used by criminals if that's the case. Can anyone shed some light?

Just out of curiosity, I was watching an old episode from the TV show, "Alias", and during one of the scenes, they showed "the bad guys" using BlackBerrys to PIN each other, thus avoiding their messages being intercepted by the CIA or NSA. I was wondering if this IS possible, and if so, I can't imagine the federal government not putting a backdoor in. As I said, I'm just curious. I know PIN messages are from BB to BB, but I can't imagine them NOT being used by criminals if that's the case. Can anyone shed some light?

cfjacksn

What sort of future activities did you have in mind? - running for office?

also to keep in mind. if something is encrypted, it can be decrypted. and most likely the company doing the encrypting also has the decryption algorithm. so, with that said, nothing is safe (especially something that is owned by a company who's largest customer is the government).

__________________In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and is widely regarded as a bad move.

my wife sending me a list of things to get from the grocery store on my way home...

my boss wondering where in the building I am...

my friends knowing they can get through to me no matter where I am (luv Rogers coverage) or what time it is (see leash in dictionary)...

etc...

But really there is actually a bit more involved in sniffing in on messages. Obviously RIM is the only one who can sniff out PIN msg's thanks to the 3DES encryption used. For people who have a GSM/GPRS based carrier, the wireless traffic is also encrypted over the entire GSM/GPRS network, so the occasional hacker would have to have pretty intimate knowledge of the wireless network to even get close to sniffing.

For what it's worth, any of the more involved crooked people I know actually do use BB's and pin-to-pin messaging for shady communication. As well, I know several 'higher-up' people at RIM and they haven't heard of any case where pin-to-pin messages have been subpoena'd by the authorities, this isn't saying that it hasn't happened, but just that they have never heard of it.

Kinda funny how something like virtually untracable pin-to-pin messaging would be a feature put into the only handheld that meets the data security requirements of the US Gov't... but hey, nothing shady ever goes on there right?

I think this just goes to show that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction... good people use it, bad people use it...

Everything that leaves the handheld is encrypted... data is encrypted between the handheld and the carrier, as well as between the handheld and the relay... RIM training told me so...

I recommend revising your training documents, there is a lot of info in there, and it is easy to overlook or confuse a few things.

Encryption requires keys at each end to encrypt and decrypt data, therefore the possibility of decrypted PIN to PIN messages outside your own organisation doesn't make any sense.
Where would people outside the organisation get a matching key from?

Your PIN to PIN messages are actually able to be read by anyone able to intercept and assemble your data packets as they travel from one device to the other. (which is how the plans to the Death star were intercepted), but not very likely

IT policy can be set on the BES to allow only encrypted PIN to PIN messages to other users within the organisation using the same BES.
This disables the ability to send them outside the organisation but can still receive them.

__________________ !

Last edited by Rancor : 07-26-2005 at 08:55 PM.
Reason: just woke up to the fact Corey posted it months ago

Messages Sent from the BlackBerry are encrypted and compressed. This applies to PIN messages as well. They cannot be monitor or intercepted from the air. All BlackBerry traffic email and PIN travel through the BlackBerry infrastructure.

PIN messages are more secure because they do not travel through the internet. Mail messages must travel via the internet. This happends after the messages leave your corporate mail server and get delivered to the recipients. During internet travel BlackBerry email is not encrypted nor is it compressed unless you are using S/MIME end to end encryption.